My guess is that Doug has a bottle from the first batch. Jet pens probably took photos and made samples of the first batch.

Everyone who got the second batch(me, emt, penguinmaster?), well it's obviously different. It doesn't even match what Jet-pens has. That's my explanation of what's going on. I knew there could be some variation in batches of Noodler's Ink, but that much?

My ink seems to look more like Penguinmaster's and not at all like HDoug's. The difference is that where PM's seems to have a purple cast to it, mine is very distinctly just brown/muddy. This ink seems nearly impossible to represent accurately in scan or photograph, but I've made an attempt:

white paper:molskine:

The stub helped me come up with what I think best represents the ink that consistently comes from my bottle (JetPen's second stock). If you have ever picked up a Chestnut that has fallen in Autumn and had your hands stained by the ... whatever it is that they excrete, this ink looks sort of like that. When it's concentrated with ball nibs, it's difficult to pick out the brown, but it seems like a dusty just-plain medium brown. The purple undertones are there, but are really difficult to discern. That is, until it smears or gets wet. In short, the color is a little muddy. It's a "brown", not a sienna/burnt sienna. I don't know what "sepia" is supposed to mean and I wish I had had larger than the 64-color crayon box growing up, as that would be helpful in pinning this one down. When you put Whaleman's on an ivory colored résumé/cotton paper, the color really comes out. The brown becomes more chestnut, less dusty, and more vibrant. It still doesn't "pop," but it's a brown themed on whaling and I don't think it's supposed to, nor that it should.

I've had some start up issues with all pens in which it's inked. But, once it starts, the flow is pretty good even though the ink feels thick. It dries quickly on the paper when thin, taking a little longer with a really wet line. It's not the easiest ink I've had to rinse out of a pen, but it comes out fine after awhile. If you soak the nib in a glass of water, the ink that swims out and eventually settles on the bottom does look like a squid's ink, but this doesn't seem to transfer to paper -- at least for me.

If you don't like inks that have an odor to them, do not buy this. It smells coming out of the bottle, off the nib, and moderately from the paper (but only if you really put your nose up to it, and who does that?).

I was a little put off with the inconsistency after first trying this ink, but I've come to like it quite a bit.

NB) my bottle was shaken rather vigorously prior to inking these pens.

I just received mine today, and it looks exactly like Loweevan's as well. If you think of the color of a vintage sepia photograph, that comes close to approxiamting the color of this ink; hence the name. It certainly isn't flashy by any means, but it does have a nice antique-looking quality that gives the written word an extra bit of class. It has a rather stong chemically smell, but only if you get right up close to it. I put mine in a Parker Duofold with fine point (medium by my standards), and it writes very nicely. I'll be trialing this ink for the next few days. I like it from the short useage so far.

regards,Blade ArcherP.S. Rather than shake these bottles, I just stand them on their head a little while before inking. That way anything that has settled to the bottom gets mixed as the bottle is inverted for filling. Avoids annoying shake bubbles, since the bottle is filled to the brim.

I just received mine today, and it looks exactly like Loweevan's as well. If you think of the color of a vintage sepia photograph, that comes close to approxiamting the color of this ink; hence the name. It certainly isn't flashy by any means, but it does have a nice antique-looking quality that gives the written word an extra bit of class. It has a rather stong chemically smell, but only if you get right up close to it. I put mine in a Parker Duofold with fine point (medium by my standards), and it writes very nicely. I'll be trialing this ink for the next few days. I like it from the short useage so far.

regards,Blade ArcherP.S. Rather than shake these bottles, I just stand them on their head a little while before inking. That way anything that has settled to the bottom gets mixed as the bottle is inverted for filling. Avoids annoying shake bubbles, since the bottle is filled to the brim.

It stinks! Literally, like lighter fluid, or some type of photographic chemicals.

The color is interesting--goes on like a dark red, but dries like something that you'd get off of your dipstick before needing to change your oil. I'm not sure what it's going to do to my Bexley Simplicity that I've loaded it in. We'll see...

I like the backstory on the ink, and was considering getting a bottle of it for a gift... but I had one question:

Is this one of those "thick" inks, like Noodler's "Socrates"?Which is to say it can be hard starting in fine/dry writers?

Thanks in advance for any input...

-Pic

This is quite a thick ink. While I've never used Socrates, I think that it might be similar from what I've read about peoples' problems with Socrates. I don't have any flow issues with this ink once it's going, but it does have a few issues with start ups sometimes. Other times, it works like a dream. My experience hasn't been consistent. I also haven't experimented with diluting it slightly, which others seem to have had success with in improving flow/start up issues with the thicker eternal inks. Also, it tends to cling to the feed and nib a bit, which I take to be a trait of the eternal inks in general. This last thing isn't a big deal, it just takes a little more flushing and soaking to rid the pen of all traces of it.

I think that as long as the recipient is willing to put up with a little fussiness, the backstory, label design, and unique traits of this ink make it a fine gift.

Evan, in my experience is correct. This ink is fairly thick and dry. At my office three of us use fountain pens and share ink. Each of us have had start up issues with this ink. Each of us have used different pens in different nib sizes. That being said, we still love the color of the ink and find that once started, it is very well behaved.

I had some in my MB Chopin and let it sit for a few days and it was like like gum getting it to flow again. I had a similar experience with Tiannenmen Red which, in no pen at the time, ever flowed properly.

As a side note, both this color and Galileo Brown match some of the inks used in the documents on display at the Galileo Exhibit here in Philadelphia.

I wish this ink would behave nicely. The start up issue really bother me. The only pen that it works well with is my Pelikan M200 w/ "Binderized" M250 Cursive Italic Nib (0.7mm). In all other pens (various EF and F nibbers), after the first use, the ink would progressively exhibit start up problems and ultimately just clog within 48 hours.

When the ink does flow, the color is a nice sepia (a worn grayed brick red to my eye), definitely not the red biased sepia on JetPens' site. I'd be using it a lot more if the flow wasn't a problem. It's just not reliable enough for me in my daily writers to take to my regular meetings...I learned that the hard way

I believe my bottle's from JetPens' second run, so my experience may not be the same as someone's with the first batch.

While cleaning out one of my Pelikan's, I noticed the color separation of this ink. I thought it was interesting and figured it would be nice to share. The picture was from my iPhone so it doesn't do the colors justice, but there are shades of black, brown, green and red here.

I just had to revive this old thread to indicate (warn) that I had some problems with this ink. I just received a bottle in the mail from JetPens (great seller, no issues nor affiliation with them) today. I promptly filled my XF Lamy 2000, which writes more like an F or even an M, depending on the wetness of the ink. When filled with Whaleman's Sepia, it was nearly unusable. Extremely dry and inconsistent (maybe "gloopy" is the word). It was so dry that it almost felt as if I were damaging my pen by dragging the raw metal against the paper unlubricated. And this pen is my *smoothest* writer!

I flushed the 2000 (reverted to the always-lovely Aircorp Blue Black), and I was afraid that the Sepia was going to go to waste, but then I decided to try it in my Lamy CP1, which has a true medium nib. I'm happy to say that the ink behaves wonderfully in this pen, and I do quite like the color. Maybe this is inconsistent batch-to-batch, but I can definitely see the purple undertones in mine.

Overall, I'm not *thrilled* with my purchase, because I'd really prefer that this ink were as wonderfully smooth and wet in my 2000 as Heart Of Darkness is, but at least it's not a total bust, and the color is rather unique.

I just had to revive this old thread to indicate (warn) that I had some problems with this ink. I just received a bottle in the mail from JetPens (great seller, no issues nor affiliation with them) today. I promptly filled my XF Lamy 2000, which writes more like an F or even an M, depending on the wetness of the ink. When filled with Whaleman's Sepia, it was nearly unusable. Extremely dry and inconsistent (maybe "gloopy" is the word). It was so dry that it almost felt as if I were damaging my pen by dragging the raw metal against the paper unlubricated. And this pen is my *smoothest* writer!

I flushed the 2000 (reverted to the always-lovely Aircorp Blue Black), and I was afraid that the Sepia was going to go to waste, but then I decided to try it in my Lamy CP1, which has a true medium nib. I'm happy to say that the ink behaves wonderfully in this pen, and I do quite like the color. Maybe this is inconsistent batch-to-batch, but I can definitely see the purple undertones in mine.

Overall, I'm not *thrilled* with my purchase, because I'd really prefer that this ink were as wonderfully smooth and wet in my 2000 as Heart Of Darkness is, but at least it's not a total bust, and the color is rather unique.

After using this intermittently, I've found that it does have a tendency to dry out in the feed. Now that you mention it, the feel isn't quite like gliding across the paper, but I don't think that it's a grating feeling either. Gloopy might be just right. Also, I've found that watering it down even 10:1 helps with the consistency even if it doesn't necessarily make it an easier starter.